Five Years Later

By Samantha Power

We launched this site on the five year anniversary of Sergio’s death because it didn’t seem adequate to light yet another candle, to reminisce about his successes and failures in the field, or to celebrate the remarkable A Team that was killed or wounded with him in Baghdad. This year, five years after the attack, with Russian troops having invaded Georgia, humanitarian workers being targeted in Afghanistan, and so few of the lessons of Sergio’s life heeded in geopolitical circles, it seemed a good moment to try to generate a debate on how dignity and security could best be promoted in foreign policy today.

While alive, Sergio was known as the “go to guy,” and these days the absence of such a go-to person is felt daily. The United States and Europe are speaking with multiple voices on the Russian invasion. Rivalry and differences among China, Russia and the United States have greatly undermined the Security Council and its capacity to meet this and other threats to international peace and security.

Here in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, there are few events commemorating the murder of Sergio, a Brazilian, on August 19, 2003. This was a suicide bomb that not only took 22 lives, but that shattered the old school faith of humanitarians that their good intentions would shield them from being targeted in the field. Born in Brazil, Sergio Vieira de Mello was the son of a diplomat, so travelled a great deal as a child. Then he became a peripatetic trouble-shooter himself, working in the UN for 34 years in relief, refugee protection, peacekeeping and what became known as nation-building. As a result, most Brazilians got to know Sergio in death rather than in life, and they still know him largely in silhouette. That said, university and graduate students in particular seem hungry to reclaim Sergio as one of Brazil’s own. In addition, as Brazil asserts itself on the international stage, Sergio’s life seems one that more Brazilian diplomats are intent on accessing for wisdom in settling regional and international disputes, and also for an understanding of the sources of violence and extremism, ills that plague this country’s own cities as well as danger zones abroad.

Americans have themselves found it hard to “place” Sergio. Although world leaders and citizens have talked at length the last decade about globalization, global terrorism, global warming, global poverty, etc., we still read history books that introduce us to statist figures. We rarely get to walk in the footsteps of a person who moved with the world’s challenges – across borders. His achievements aren’t those we are used to celebrating (or even noticing) – orchestrating the return of hundreds of thousands of refugees, negotiating demobilization agreements, helping draft constitutions or plan elections, and even shepherding a tiny country (East Timor) to independence. People also have trouble placing Sergio because his life is one of trade-offs and moral incommensurables in negotiations; he offers no black and white formulas for peace or even coexistence; he inhabited the grey zones of the global system.

Hopefully this site will be a space where people from all walks can come to debate how the United States and other countries can better navigate those grey zones in the years ahead. In the meantime, we join in remembrance of the 22 innocent lives that were taken five years ago today in Baghdad.

• Saad Hermiz Abona, 45, Iraq, Canal Hotel cafeteria worker
• Reham al-Farra, Jordan, 29, spokesperson
• Emaad Ahmed Salman al-Jobory, 45, Iraq, electrician
• Raid Shaker Mustafa al-Mahdawi, 32, Iraq, electrician
• Omar Kahtan Mohamed al-Orfali, 34, Iraq, driver/interpreter, Christian Children's Fund
• Leen Assad al-Qadi, 32, Iraq, information assistant
• Ranillo Buenaventura, 47, Philippines, secretary
• Gillian Clark, 47, Canada, child protection workers, Christian Children's Fund
• Arthur Helton, 54, United States, director of peace and conflict studies at the Council on Foreign Relations
• Richard 'Rick' Hooper, 40, United States, political officer
• Reza Hosseini, 43, Iran, humanitarian affairs officer
• Ihsan Taha Husein, 26, Iraq, driver
• Jean-Sélim Kanaan, 33, Egypt, Italy, and France
• Chris Klein-Beekman, 32, Canada, program coordinator for UN Children Fund (UNICEF)
• Manuel Martín-Oar Fernandez-Heredia, 56, Spain, assistant to the Spanish special ambassador to Iraq
• Khidir Saleem Sahir, Iraq, driver
• Dr. Alya Sousa, 54, Iraq, consultant to the World Bank Iraq Team
• Martha Teas, 47, United States, manager of the UN humanitarian information center
• Basim Mahmoud Utaiwi, 40, Iraq, security guard, security guard
• Sérgio Vieira de Mello, 55, Brazil, UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General
• Fiona Watson, 35, United Kingdom, political affairs officer
• Nadia Younes, 57, Egypt, Chief of Staff

Comments

[Kathleen]

Samantha I want to congratulate you on this blog. Truly there was only one Sergio. I never knew this magnificent human being until I read your book, which is a wonderful portrait of Sergio and his life, decisions, challenges and also of the last day of his life. I pray for you and all of his family and friends worldwide and know he will continue to be a growing influence to future generations as they seek to allow peace to gain a real place intrinsic in our ways of life.
USA

[Nell]

Thank you all for all that you are doing!